Mass. Auditor Suzanne Bump sees inaugural boycott as 'empty gesture'

Wednesday

Jan 18, 2017 at 12:43 PMJan 18, 2017 at 12:47 PM

By Katie LannanSTATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

The decision of some Democratic members of Congress -- including U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark -- to boycott President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration has prompted criticism from both sides of the aisle in Massachusetts this week.

Rep. Geoff Diehl, a Whitman Republican who was the only state elected official to back Trump in the GOP primary, invoked the memory of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, an outspoken liberal, in his rebuke of Clark and others who are skipping Friday's ceremony to protest Trump's election.

"Let me put it this way, would Ted Kennedy, the liberal lion of the Senate, do something like this? I don't think so," Diehl said on NECN's The Take Tuesday evening. "He was always good at looking out for what was important for the people of Massachusetts. Katherine Clark, by doing this, Representative Clark is setting herself outside of that realm of discussion with the administration, I think, and that's going to ultimately hurt us, and I think you'd never see that sort of action out of former Senator Kennedy."

Diehl, who will be attending the inauguration with his wife, expects it to be "an exciting day," especially for Republicans, and called it "politically selfish" to boycott the event.

"I mean, look, this is a chance for us to unite," he said. "We've had a contentious election like I don't think anybody's ever seen, certainly a contentious last eight years. We're really not as united as a country as we should be."

Auditor Suzanne Bump, a Democrat who backed Clinton, struck a similar note on Wednesday, saying she did not understand the intended impact of a boycott and would attend the inauguration if she were a member of Congress.

"I understand the value of making political statements, but I think they're more valuable when they'll have, they'll produce an effect," she said on Boston Herald Radio. "Maybe it will make a few people think that you're highly principled, but what will it achieve? It won't achieve anything, so I would regard it as a rather empty gesture."

Clark, a Melrose Democrat in office since 2013, is the only member of the Massachusetts delegation to announce plans to boycott the inauguration, though more than 50 other U.S. House Democrats are skipping the event as well.

"I had hoped that the President-elect would use the transition period and his appointments to change course and fulfill his promise to be a President for all Americans; however, this has not been the case," she said. "After discussions with hundreds of my constituents, I do not feel that I can contribute to the normalization of the President-elect's divisive rhetoric by participating in the Inauguration."

U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy, the grand-nephew of Ted Kennedy, does plan to attend the inauguration. The Newton Democrat told the Boston Globe on Tuesday that he understood why colleagues would elect not to go but said it was "not about the person, it is about the process and the celebration of our democracy, so I should be there."

Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who did not vote for either Trump, Democrat Hillary Clinton or any other presidential candidate in November's election, will also attend. Senate President Stan Rosenberg said last week it was the right move for Baker to go and that he hoped "a lot of other people from Massachusetts" would do so to help build relationships and remind Trump "that Massachusetts is a really important state in this country to the success of the economy."